to think paedo hunter gangs aren't necessarily a good thing?

[GhostPerfume]

I am torn on this. I have a lot of friends who share these posts on facebook, I have never shared them and do not follow their pages.

I was sexually abused by a teacher growing up - I am in no way a paedophile sympathiser AT ALL. Just before someone comes on and flames me!

What worries me is the families of these people - they are often filmed at their family home. Also I tend not to watch the videos of the "stings" that people share but I watched one today as it was very local to me. The gang seemed to have a huge stack of evidence and they apprehended the suspect and called the police. It is what happened after that I am struggling with. They then spent the whole time until the police came repeatedly goading the offender. They kept repeating "We won't hurt you unless you hurt us/run away" But I felt like they were goading them into that. 4 of them standing round shouting and swearing, shouting if they didn't answer, then if they did answer they mocked the answer and said it was the wrong thing to have said. There is NOTHING the suspect can do to justify their actions, (rightly,they often admit it and there is no way they can have any reason)

Members of the public who comment saying to stop shouting and swearing in public get a mouthful from the gang threatening to put their faces on the live facebook feed, and whipping up crazy levels of anger from those watching online who then make threats to the passers by.

The gang seem to be made up of people who have had no official training at all.

On the other hand these "stings" often do result in prosecutions of the offender. The police do not have the man power/resources to do all this work. But the way they go about it really is getting OTT, swaggering about shouting "we are on a sting FUCK off anyone who doesn't agree is a paedo sympathiser"

I can share the link to the one that was near me that I mean where they seemed to be repeatedly goading the man into wanting him to fight so they could have a reason to batter him. Not sure if I am allowed to share the link. (The man was admitting it and IMO is an utterly VILE human who deserves prison) but they could have stood quietly with him while waiting for police instead it was them screaming and shouting and causing a huge scene.

But getting to your original question OP, yanbu. They are definitely not a good thing at all and I really disagree with any kind of vigilante justice. As frustrating and upsetting as it is sometimes, especially for victims' families, you just can't go around accusing people of crimes or dishing out your own version of justice because that way lies a whole world of trouble.

Let the qualified members of the police and law professionals handle the bad guys, vigilantes do more harm than good.

The police force told my parent that my paedo ‘seems nice’. He’s a violent torturer and rapist and started on me when I was under 3 years old. Lovely man, not in the publics interest to prosecute, apparently. It’s very rare that paedos get prosecuted, by their very nature their victims cannot provide evidence. Hearing of vigilantes regarding paedos gives me some hope. 1 in 20 UK kids have been sexually abused, look out for the signs a child displays when abused, I am one of the one in twenty and I wish I had got justice.

These 'vigilantes' are just a pile of knuckle dragging thugs. No way are they interested in anything other than 15 seconds of infamy. We have a police force and a justice system. They are the ones who should be dealing with it. Yes, they are under resourced just as all our public services are, but that doesn't mean we want hooligans taking the law into their own hands.
They are just a lynch mob, nothing else.

After an innocent man was live streamed by these vigilanties the police issued a statement, West Yorkshire Police have in the past raised concerns about the activities of vigilante groups, whose actions can often jeopardise court cases. A statement from the force read: "We would always encourage members of the public to report any illegal activity relating to child sexual exploitation which they come across online. "While the force does of course share concerns regarding the internet activity of potential child abusers and the danger they present, it must be stressed that the activity that ‘paedophile hunter’ related groups seek to engage in, is the responsibility of law enforcement agencies. "West Yorkshire Police fully investigates all allegations of child sexual exploitation and has dedicated, specialist safeguarding officers in all our policing districts. We urge members of such 'exposure' groups not to carry out this activity and instead to report suspected offences in West Yorkshire to the force via 101 or the independent Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111.

www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/paedophile-hunters-make-public-apology-after-falsely-shaming-innocent-leeds-man-in-live-sting-1-9132984